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Re: Browser version advice in accessibility statement

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From: ihenix
Date: Nov 4, 2011 11:48AM

Hi Aaron,

I'm no longer at Opera so can't advise on screen reader support. There was some for Safari but nothing beyond that when I was there.

According to WhenCanIUse.com (http://caniuse.com/wai-aria) Opera Mobile and Mini have some support for WAI ARIA but as the mobile browser doesn't support speech output it's difficult to comment.

As an aside I did some testing on iOS for WAI ARIA together with Kevin Chao, results can be found here:
http://www.iheni.com/wai-aria-support-on-ios/

Henny

---
@iheni
www.iheni.com

On 4 Nov 2011, at 15:56, Aaron Leventhal < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Henny, can you advise on what Opera version - screen reader version combos
> work best for the "safe" and "full" ARIA cases I mentioned? I'd like to
> include that in my list. Sorry for not including in the first place.
>
> Aaron
>
> On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Aaron Leventhal < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> Hi Kevin,
>>
>> First, I think reasonable ARIA usage depends on the target audience and
>> type of content:
>>
>> Content:
>> 1. For critical pages, such as documentation and support, it seems
>> reasonable to support accessibility without ARIA -- only as a progressive
>> enhancement
>> 2. For pages using dynamic content to spiffy it up, it seems reasonable to
>> use WAI-ARIA as a progressive enhancement.
>> 3. For content such as rich internet applications, it seems reasonable to
>> use ARIA to its fullest power available today.
>>
>> Target audience:
>> 1. If targeting the broad public (e.g. a government website), it seems
>> necessary to stay on the safe side.
>> 2. If targeting advanced technology users (e.g. a high tech company), it
>> seems reasonable to use ARIA a lot more, and to require a more advanced
>> browser - screen reader combo for content outside of the basics
>> (documentation, support, etc.)
>>
>> Safe -- content for the broader public, or is primarily static HTML:
>> • IE7+ with JAWS 7+, NVDA 2011.1+ or Window-Eyes 5.5+, Hal (version?),
>> System Access (version?), etc.
>> • Firefox 3.6 + with JAWS 7+, NVDA 2011.1+, Window-Eyes 5.5+
>> • Safari 4+ with VoiceOver on Snow Leopard or later
>> • Mobile Safari and VoiceOver on iOS 4 or later
>>
>> Full -- content for a high tech audience or must be dynamic by its nature:
>> • IE8+ with JAWS 10+ (unfortunately there is no live region support in
>> NVDA+IE)
>> • Firefox 3.6+ with JAWS 10+ or NVDA 2011.1+
>> • Safari 5+ with VoiceOver on Lion or later
>> • Mobile browsers: to be determined
>>
>> I'm still keeping my eye on Google Chrome. That is becoming more
>> accessible.
>>
>> Finally, regarding the upgrade message. I think this can be done in a
>> clever, automatic way. Basically, in the "Full" case we can put in hidden
>> content that only non-ARIA screen reader users will hear, a friendly
>> message explaining that the site uses ARIA, an advanced technology for
>> making websites accessible, and to please press the Enter key to learn
>> about supported combinations. I'm looking into some code for this.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Aaron
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Kevin White < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> I have a client who is doing some excellent work on creating an inclusive
>>> and engaging website. In order to do so they are drawing on the features
>>> provided in WAI-ARIA. This leads to some difficulties regarding browser and
>>> screen reader compatibility and we discussed how to address this. My
>>> personal opinion is to use part of the accessibility statement to highlight
>>> the efforts but point out the need for users to upgrade but I was curious
>>> to understand how people view this?
>>>
>>> My opinion is based on the idea that ARIA provides the opportunity to
>>> help users of assistive technologies but in order to do that there is a
>>> need to use a modern browser. User may not know this and by providing
>>> information around this there is an opportunity to provide wider help.
>>>
>>> I would be interested to hear any other views on this,
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Kevin
>>>